


The Distance Between Us

by biasedwriting



Series: Working Title : Jock!Taekwoon Au [2]
Category: K-pop, VIXX
Genre: Angst, Break Up and Make Up, F/M, Idk what to tag this as, Jock taekwoon au sequel, Multi, Romance, SMUTTY SMUT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:47:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biasedwriting/pseuds/biasedwriting
Summary: Life makes Taekwoon and Minah take decisions that make them wonder if it is truly possible for them to ever forget each other.
Relationships: Jung Taekwoon | Leo/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Working Title : Jock!Taekwoon Au [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596196
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1





	The Distance Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to Expectations. The original jock!Taekwoon au. Read that if you have not already!

The lights are blinding, and Minah wonders why the projector had been put in such a bright setting. Mindless information floats on the screen, making her synapses light up somewhere but not enough. A flicker in the distance to be entirely honest. She’s fairly certain she doesn’t have a clue as to what is happening in the class. 

So she lets herself dissociate. Like she has been for the last few weeks. The initial anxiety of her Master’s degree had died out, leaving her grasping at straws to feel something. Anything, really. 

She’s lost track of many episodes of various dramas she’s watched on Netflix trying to fill a growing void. It was easy in the beginning for certain, everything was easy to engage herself in things around her. To forget.

To switch off feeling.

Yet, she finds herself standing in front of the sink, scrubbing unnecessarily hard at her face. Her cheek stings but she keeps going. She’s certain she’s going to draw blood at this point. It’s better than feeling nothing, she muses. It’s better than thinking about the what-ifs. 

It’s better than wondering what Taekwoon is probably doing right now. 

Minah slaps the toner on her face a little too hard. Maybe it would help her slap some sense into herself. Or hopefully, the lump in her throat will dissolve into less of a scream or a sob and more into simple silence.

She hisses when the serum hits her face. Vitamin C was never a friend of broken skin. It burns, just like the bile threatening to creep up her throat and into her mouth. 

She hates it. She hates how well she knows that she’s alone. She hates how her thoughts wander. She despises how she’s unhappy with the fact that he has probably moved on and she’s stuck somewhere in the process; unable to move forward.

Today’s dinner is even more tasteless. She’s not really sure as to what she had shoved in the microwave moments ago but it scalds her tongue till her tastebuds scream and then silence. Somewhere in the back of her brain, she’s aware she’s not going to be able to taste anything for weeks.

She finds herself smiling, wondering if this is slowly driving her insane. 

Minah had never pictured herself to be someone who got hung up on people. She has always prided herself for bouncing back from things quickly. She always figured she’d be happy if her ex found someone who made him happy and not feel miserable about it. And yet, here she is, stabbing at overcooked, reheated, rubbery jjajangmyeon feeling certain that somewhere across the world, Taekwoon was out on a date with the love of his life. 

“You’re eating jjajangmyeon at 12 AM again,” she hears a comment making her look up at her roommate, Dambi who stands by the kitchen counter with her arms crossed. Minah shoots her with a guilty smile. Sighing, Dambi leans against the counter.

“Where were you?”

“Library.”

“Yongguk was looking for you.” 

“Mhm,” Minah replies, noncommittally “did he want something?”

Dambi purses her lips. Minah didn’t start her Master’s like this. She was fairly friendly and fun to be around. She used to sit down and help out her classmates who couldn’t understand the course material. But it soon became her having her energy drained out by people who used her skills. Dambi had urged her to put her foot down and once she did, then came the constant chatter about her being an entitled bitch.

“He actually wanted to talk to you about a possible research project...maybe you should shoot him a text.” Dambi hopes that this will pull Minah out of her rut. Yongguk was a decent guy and working with him could mean that Minah would have some intellectual stimulation at least.

“Will do,” Minah mumbles with another mouthful of jjajangmyeon.

“Don’t forget and try and get some sleep. Good night.”

“Mhm,” Minah waves her phone at Dambi, indicating that she was going to message Yongguk. Watching Dambi retreat into her room, she sighs, shovelling the rest of her meal down her throat before heading to her own room. Her phone buzzes, and she looks down to see Yongguk’s name flashing on her screen. Swiping up to unlock it, she reads Yongguk’s message.

_ Hey, I was actually wondering if we could team up on this research idea I had for the I T R course. I saw that you were interested in working on something on the lines of Art History as well. _

Running her fingers through the tangles in her hair, Minah takes a few moments to consider Yongguk’s proposal. She changes into her pyjamas before reaching for her phone and sending him a message.

_ Yes, I am! Do you think we could sit down together tomorrow and have a chat about it? _

_ Sounds good, is 3:30 at the uni cafe good for you? _

_ Yeah _

She intends on setting her phone away and throwing herself in bed. But Minah can’t stop herself from opening her world clock application, just to wonder if Taekwoon is awake. She can’t stop wondering what he’s possibly doing at that moment.

Does he think of her as much as she thinks of him?

Lying down, she stares at the ceiling. It’s been a whole year and yet she feels the void only growing as opposed to the healing that everyone tells her to look forward to. Maybe there is no getting over one’s first love. 

She finds herself reminiscing, remembering the many times Taekwoon had somehow clambered into her room to spend time with her, sneaking in just a few extra moments because somehow spending the whole day with her just wasn’t enough. How he’d kiss her. Softly at first, before the tempo of their lips would match the heated touches.

Minah hates reminiscing. She hates how it makes her feel after months and months of not being able to feel a damn thing. How the sudden flood of it overwhelms her just enough for her to bury her face into her pillow and allow it to soak in the tears that flood over. Some days are better than others.

Somewhere in those thoughts and the haze of tears, Minah finds sleep. 

* * *

“Taekwoon,” her voice purred against his neck as he pulled her closer, fingers gripping at the curves of her flesh and he pressed his nose into her hair, inhaling deeply. His eyes are still closed, even when he feels her arms creeping around his neck and pulling him into a lazy kiss that he hums into. He has a feeling that he has another match coming up and she’s already begun her own little way of wishing him good luck, starting the day off with a kiss and an embrace that had him going for the rest of the day. 

He opened his eyes to meet Minah’s and she smiled before fading into the darkness, causing him to bolt up, wide awake.

It's only some nights that Taekwoon wakes up with a cold sweat dripping down his forehead. The dream was a little too vivid, a little too in colour, a little too close to his heart. The thought of waking up to her voice and touch makes a deep ache bloom in his heart. 

His fingers itch to reach for his mobile phone, belatedly realizing that calls at odd hours would probably not be appreciated, especially given the time zones and the fact that they aren’t together anymore.

Not together anymore... he muses, reaching for the bedside light instead. The room lights up with a dull yellow glow. This has been home for the last year, ever since he was scouted by the national soccer team B and sent to London to train.

It had been mutual, almost logical honestly, they were both ambitious and had dreams. She had wished him well at the airport when he boarded to leave. Why, there had even been a sweet goodbye kiss. She was going to Seoul for her Masters and him, to London. They had agreed distance would be good, physically it was easy, being continents apart.

But it wasn’t so easy for Taekwoon to forget.

Sometimes he’d find himself wondering the what-ifs. Sometimes the what-ifs came in the form of dreams that had him jerking awake into reality. Dreams of endless days flowing into one another, every second spent with her. 

This was one of those nights. After the many blind dates, hours spent training, distracting himself, Taekwoon wonders if a year is enough to get over someone like Kim Minah. A two-year-long relationship that was cocooned in the bubble of their undergraduate life.

He sighs, maybe he’d call the number Shinji, his teammate, had given him. Her name was Lorraine or something on those lines. The mopey behaviour on his part had been a little too much for his teammates to really handle and thus began the spirals of blind dating which really didn’t end up in very much.

But that didn’t mean one shouldn't get back up and try again. Even if getting over Kim Minah seems nearly impossible. 

***

Minah shivers at the sudden cold draft of air as Yongguk approaches her with two cups of hot coffee. Their project had taken off and their guide was extremely happy with where it was going. She found herself completely immersing herself into working on the project which was now showing results. 

“Rough day?” Yongguk asks, setting the cup in front of her and she rolls her eyes in response.

“Double block classes with Han and Seo. I think my brain just melted and dribbled out of my ear.”

Yongguk chuckles, his deep voice reverberating in the empty university cafe “tough. I got some additional reading done. I sent over the notes too.”

“Bless you, I don’t think I have the brain space left to process any more information.” Minah takes a deep sip of her coffee as Yongguk fiddles around with his phone before taking a sip of his own coffee. Minah enjoys Yongguk’s company. He’s one of the few people who doesn’t seem to fall for the “Minah is a bitch” rumours which was rather beneficial for her. They'd grown closer over their time working together and had now moved to conversations beyond just academics.

“Can’t believe we sent our paper over for the Historiography conference,” Yongguk lets out a sigh “I don’t know what we were thinking. Do you think they’ll accept?”

“We’ve worked hard on it. I really hope we get it. You’ll get to meet Daehyun then, won’t you?” Minah shoots him a tight-lipped smile. Daehyun was Yongguk’s boyfriend and he was studying at the London School of Economics. They were making it work long-distance and every time Minah heard of the two of them, she wondered what would have happened if she and Taekwoon had stuck it out.

“Minah...hey, Minah!” Yongguk waves his phone in front of her face excitedly “we don’t have to worry about whether they’ll accept the paper! We’ve gotten an invite for the conference!”

“Hold on,” Minah’s eyes widen “are you serious? Don’t wave your phone around and let me see!” she reaches for his phone and looks at the screen which flashes a congratulatory email inviting her to the University College London’s conference on historiography. Her brain freezes for a moment; conflicted between the thought of being in the same space as Taekwoon as well as the elation of her success. 

"We did it!” Yongguk grasps at her hand and shakes it with a gummy grin which she returns once she has collected herself “my good madam, we are going to London!”

“You’re going to get laid!” Minah laughs as Yongguk waves his hands around, flustered.

“Shut up,” he grumbles, glaring at Minah doubles over with laughter. He looks up, a little seriously catching her attention "will you be telling him that you'll be in London?"

Minah shrugs, "we had agreed not to get in touch after he left for London to make the break up easier."

Yongguk shoots her a momentary look of pity. Her tone of finality makes him aware that he should probably not broach the subject any further. He lets her finish her coffee before standing up and clearing his throat.

"Let's go inform Professor Jeon. We'll need to start the formalities of getting University permission to go to London."

Minah sighs and stands up, heaving her backpack onto her shoulders and shooting an evil grin at Yongguk "more importantly, we need to get money from our university. UCL might be covering stay in London, but we need to get to London first " 

"Right you are!" Yongguk laughs, holding the door open for her, allowing her to lead the way to their guide's office.

* * *

Taekwoon shifts uncomfortably as he stands in some little pub tucked in the corner of Oxford Street. It's crowded there and he's awaiting his blind date, Lorraine's arrival.

Shinji had gone on and on about how she was absolutely stunning and she'd seen him play and she thought he was really good. He'd shown Taekwoon a picture too and Taekwoon had to admit, the lady was good looking.

But now he finds himself standing by the window of this dimly lit joint watching the same face walk towards the establishment. He appreciated the effort Lorraine had put into what she was wearing. In fact, he felt terribly underdressed in his t-shirt and jeans. 

He watches her push the door open and look around. He doesn't find himself calling to her to get her attention, instead, she finds him and takes confident steps over to him.

"Hello! You must be Taekwoon!" She says, taking his outstretched arm and pulling him into a hug. Taekwoon bites his lip as he shifts away with a soft "nice to meet you, Lorraine."

"Sorry, did I make you wait very long?" She asks, fussing around with her bag.

"No, I just got here five minutes back," Taekwoon shakes his head. There's a moment of silence as Lorraine looks at him with a pause.

"Shall I get us some drinks?" Taekwoon asks, knowing the drill by now after going through this process several times. 

"Uhm, yeah, that would be nice. I'll have a glass of white wine, if that's alright." 

It's the same old thing. Over and over. Taekwoon finds himself humming in response to the lady before him barely able to absorb a word. He wants to chastise himself for being a poor date, he wants to be involved with what Lorraine is saying, but he just can't find any spark. 

There really is no getting over Kim Minah.

Taekwoon sighs, gaze shifting to the window and he can feel the whole world around him come to a screeching halt.

She's standing across the street, hair billowing in the wind as she tries to clutch as the cost she has loosely thrown over her shoulders. The crisp white shirt underneath it draws attention in the darkness as she hurries across the street towards him. 

Kim Minah is running towards him.

Taekwoon blinks, wondering if he's hallucinating. Maybe it's the alcohol, he muses. But there she is, standing in front of the pub he's at and Taekwoon is certain she looks ethereal in the dingy darkness of the street.

"You're a very good listener," Lorraine comments, steadily drinking her second glass of wine "why don't you tell me more about yourself?"

Taekwoon can feel his heart pounding in his ears. His focus is entirely on the woman standing outside the pub. It takes all his will power not to go tearing outside and gather her in his arms. His Minah is in the same space as him. His Minah is breathing the same air. His Minah is under the same moonlight.

That's when he sees the other man approaching from behind, tall, Korean, strong-looking fellow slinging his arm around Minah's shoulder as she first panics before laughing and chastising him.

That's no longer his Minah.

"Taekwoon? Is everything okay?" Lorraine's voice pipes in making Taekwoon snap out of it as he turns to the woman in front of him.

"Uh, yes. Sorry, I was just thinking about something." He says, hoping he looks sufficiently sheepish. The door of the pub flies open and his eyes fix themselves on Minah and the man who are now making their way in. 

His heart drops at the smile on her face, she is so close, yet so far. It twists and turns when she hooks her coat on the pegs. It comes to his throat when her wide eyes meet his.


End file.
